bunch a paintings and cigar box cabinet

I got a lot of work to do these days. Usually I would have to be out in the streets, doing markets on the weekend to stay this busy. Maybe after ten years I won’t have to do so many markets, the phone rings and rings. I get a call almost everyday about work. It’s nice to pick and choose a little. I have been turning down furniture jobs that don’t interest me, that’s nice. Used to be I said yes before a person could get the question out of their mouth. I said yes to most any furniture job, not so much anymore. I want to do more painting and less furniture, seems it’s gonna work out for me.

Right now I’m doing about five paintings, some are orders, some are for events. Tomorrow some friends are part of a wine event at their doggie boutique. That’s right wine at the doggie boutique. I have a couple of pieces hanging there and will hang more for this event. They tell me they sell a thousand tickets for this “wine crawl” so maybe I’ll sell something.

I am also working on a cabinet for the crazy client that had me make a coffee table from a old pickup truck tail gate. This time I have built a cabinet that is 40″ wide and 30″ tall and 24″ deep. I have finished the building of this project and am now covering the whole thing in cigar box lids. It looks great. This lady has collected about a million cigar boxes and didn’t know what to do with them. I like it, think it’s a good idea.

Even with all this hard work to do I will make time today to have lunch with Chef. Our plan is to hit 2 or 3 taco joints in my hood and then head a little further south and check out a place I have spied lately. It has a sign out front that says something like “tropical market and pig grill”. Sometimes I see a lady cooking at an outdoor grill, sometimes I see no one. I got to check it out and Chef is just the guy to do it with. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Dinner in NYC without leaving the South

The other night Stacey and I had dinner in NYC and never left Atlanta. We joined some friends for an early evening of music and then started looking for a place to eat. Chef had told me of a new place in midtown and we were in the area so let’s try it.

Top FLR is located in an elevator shaft with a kitchen the size of a walk in closet. I am constantly amazed at the food that can come out of a place this size. It is not unusual to find a place like this in NYC, they’re a dime a dozen. And for some reason most of the time they are really good. I don’t know if it’s because of the size and that allows for the chefs to focus on each dish more than usual or maybe, and this is what I like to think, but maybe it’s small because of the start up budget, that this is all they could afford. What I’m trying to say is, that a group or a chef or whoever, opened such a tiny space and made it work, it is a mark of their passion for the restaurant business.

Top Flr is tiny but has it all, a nice size bar, with three 2 toppers on the ground floor. To get to the restroom one must walk between the bar and the kitchen. The kitchen looks to be about 15′ square. The dining room is upstairs which we never made it to because we had no reservation. It’s Saturday night about nine o’clock, the three small tables in the front window have a couple sitting at the middle table. So we start moving tables and chairs, sit down and realize we are blocking the waitrons path from the kitchen to the rest of the restaurant. The four of us kinda act like we don’t know what to do, which was easy for us. Finally the couple said they would move to one side and lets us sit together. He wasn’t real pleased at first, she was cool. We bought him a glass of wine and he chilled out. We even got to talking to them, she was from NYC so I ask her write down some of her favorite restaurants in the city. Which she did, which was nice of her.

Anyway we settled in, ordered and watched people come in the front door, go up the stairs and come right back down and leave. The place was full and no one was going anywhere fast. There was a really nice pace about the place and the meal.

So the food? It’s real good, it’s not to expensive and it’s fresh. Free form ravioli was prepared with shrimp that night, corn and other vegetables were added. Stacey had a pizza I can’t remember the details, but it was very good. I remember there was mac and cheese and it was baked and it was good. Someone had a hanger steak that I had a bite of, perfect, I will order that next time.

They are open really late, 1 a.m. and 2 a.m. weekends, that’s so NYC ya know. That’s about as much as I can remember, I wasn’t driving so………….

Goat chz stuffed Mardi Gras Peppers.

The official photographer for the Mystic Fish always does a great job and we thank him very much. Thank you very much. This year his lovely wife joined us on that beautiful Sunday afternoon in beautiful downtown Mobile, Alabama. She brought along with her a huge chunk of goat cheese with dried tomatos for all to enjoy after the parade. Well there was a lot of food that day and everything did not get eaten. Stacey split up the leftovers between her folks, my folks and us. We brought home a lot of good food, including some of that goat cheese. One night Stacey did this with some of the cheese.

I cried when I saw her take them out of the oven, wouldn’t you? They were so beautiful, sweet peppers stuffed with some of that goat cheese. We ate them with a steak off the grill. They were so good we had two more the next night.

How to Raise Money, Southern Style.

I met a young lady who approached me about donating a piece of my art work, a pig was her request, it’s was for the High Museum’s annual fund raiser. No problem I told her I would be happy to help the cause.

Well one thing led to another and the next thing I know I’m working with some of the people I have written about on this here blog.

What I doing is donating a piece of art for a fund raiser, but this ain’t no common fund raiser, it’s the 16th annual for the High Museum of Art. It’s all about art, food, wine and the good things in life. It draws folks from all over the country because of the wines offered for auction. From what I’m told it is some of the best wines from California and some you just can’t get otherwise.

It seems they have focused on wine as a theme for this event for years. You can bid on one bottle of wine or a case of wine. You can bid on a wine dinner for two or a pork pull for thirty. That’s the lot I’m involved with, “Cork and Pork”.

Cork and Pork is split into two parts. The first is a seminar at Restaurant Eugene. Of course it will focus on pork and the king of bacon will be there to share his product and knowledge. Allan Benton is considered to be the best bacon man in the South. In today’s age of fresh and local all the best chefs in the Southeast turn to him to fulfill their need for bacon and other pork products.

Chef Linton Hopkins, owner and operator of Restaurant Eugene, along with his wife Gina, will prepare the meal. Crispy black-eyed peas with pigtails, Deep South Salumi and pork belly with fixin’s are just part of the fare to be enjoyed.

John T. Edge will be on hand to answer questions and wax poetic on the virtues of pork and all things Southern. Edge is the Director of the Southern Foodways Alliance and the author of many books on Southern food. I have written about his book, A Southern Belly, on this blog more then once.

I get to work with the wine maker providing the wine for the seminar and the auction the next day. Tuck Beckstoffer helps run his family vineyards in Napa Ca. He also has his own labels and 75 Wine Company will be represented for this event. Tuck will blend a special wine for the seminar and auction and the piece of art I have donated for the auction will be used for the label on this special blend. The wine will be called Hog Wash. Ain’t that cool?

Then the next day at the silent auction Chef Hopkins, Tuck Beckstoffer and myself will team up again and make a lot available to the winner which will consist of a pig pull for thirty, lessons on cooking the pig and a special box to cook pigs in. There will also be more wine, Hog Wash that is and a large pig painting by yours truly.

This has all come together because of a really neat lady, Elizabeth McDonald. Elizabeth saw my paintings at a Christmas Market, contacted me the next day and one thing has led to another.

Southern Commerce

You call this work? I guess if you can get a paycheck out of it……

I just did finished the job for Alons Bakery before heading to Mobile for Mardi Gras. I had finished the bread racks and bread service counter (above) and needed to build a table 9′x 3′ for display. It ended up in the middle of the store, the first thing you see when you walk in. I built this table with antique pine boards that were 3″ thick. I had to join three pieces of 7′ long wood to make the table. I would usually have used biscuits to do this task but with 3″ thick, 7′ long pieces it called for something more substantial to hold it together. So I used 1 and 1/4″diameter, 5″ long wooden dowels to join the top. Check out these photos, one showing the old wood I was using and the photo on the top showing how I used the dowels to join them.

I know I said the table was 9′ long. I used a piece on each end to make a breadboard table top. Each of these ends were 1′ x 3′ and that added 2′ to the table. Check it out!

Open Invitation to Anthony Bourdian

If you watch this guy’s show ya know how he always goes someplace, meets an old friend and they partake in the local history and then chow down. He goes on to tell this great story of the people and the food of this place.

So I’m thinking he should head south to Mobile and focus on Mardi Gras. Focus on how the regular folk celebrate Mardi Gras. Everyone knows about the old Mystic Societies that one must be born ( or married) into, not so many know about Crewes like the Mystic Fish.

Bourdian could come down and spend about 3 or 4 days with us. We could fill him in on a little Mardi Gras history. Tell him a little about the history of Mobile, like how Mobile was under the rule of 3 different countries in the 18th century. Tell him about how important Mardi Gras is and was to Mobile. Tell him about how Joe Cain was the guy that really revived Mardi Gras after the civil war tore the country apart. Mobile Mardi Gras is what it is today because of Joe Cain.

Then you could spend the other three and a half days showing him how it works, the food, the parties, the parades, the Mystic Fish Parade and the golf tournament. You could take him to a few float barns, if you knew someone who could get you in. You could show him the most beautiful floats, all sculpted from paper mache.

Then you could talk food. Do we want to roast a pig again, do we want to buy a sack of oysters and do some on the grill? How much shrimp will we need for the weekend, 25, 30 pounds? Some for the shrimp boil Saturday night, some for shrimp and grits Sunday morning. We need mudbugs, we need beer, we need gumbo. Five gallons, with shrimp please. Bloody Marys, Mimosa, whatever.

We could then show him how we have been celebrating Mardi Gras for the last 16 years. We could teach him to build a fish float on a bicycle. We could show him good spots to see the parade from. We could teach him about Joe Cain, stuff like that. Oh yea, then there’s the food. I bet he would like the food just fine. We could tell him about the G.D. Marching Society. One of the first renegade Mardi Gras organization in Mobile.

Anyway if anyone runs into Anthony, let him know there’s an open invite for he and his Crew down in beautiful downtown Mobile, Alabama, for Mardi Gras 2009.

TY Pennington, not So Southern or smart

So here I am minding my own business, building a Mardi Float, shucking oysters, boiling shrimp and taters, drinking beers, busting the nail off my big toe, then drinking vodka and eating pain pills, you know what I mean, just minding my own business. And along comes Ty.

I don’t even know the guy. I think Chef must have known him. See we had one of, if not the top Chef in Atlanta flown in to party and cook with us Saturday night in beautiful downtown Mobile, Alabama. Man did we, I mean did he cook. I don’t remember any of it but I heard it was great. The former School-board Superintendent and his lovely wife said it was some of the best food they had ever eaten and those two have done some eating.

Anyway, like I said here comes Ty and he’s got some other guy with him and they are shooting video of Ty talking, about gods know what. So they come in the front yard, where the party has gathered and the cooking is happening. No one really noticed him, if they did no one said anything. Now he’s chatting me and the Chef up while we’re trying to cook, but he must want a little more attention than we can give him, cause he heads over to the front porch, where all the chicks are, to talk to everyone. Evidently still not enough attention cause next he ask if anyone would like to take his picture. Well this is my family and friends and they are nice people, so a few take out their cameras and snap a few shots. A few folks use their cell phones to take a photo. I bet most didn’t really take a photo, just being nice ya know.

Next thing ya know he ask my Aunt if she would like her picture taken with him and her daughter, seems she hangs out with Ty in NYC sometimes. So they humor him and have their picture taken with him. click here for photo.

Now I ain’t saying nothing, but Ty is not really that smart. Sure he has his own hit TV show, a couple of sponsors like Sears, Bayer Aspirin and some other small companies, but he just doesn’t come across as all that bright. Like I don’t think he can drive, cause he’s got this guy driving him around. He can’t even ride a bike very well and it was a 3 wheeler. Sure, the bike had a 13′ paper mache Mystic Fish attached to it, but he struggled. Click here for photo of Ty trying to ride a bike.

He was also trying to put the moves on my wife, and I think little lady was having a little to much fun. I had to say something to Ty, I didn’t want to be rude but he can’t just walk in and start hitting on my wife. Click here to see Ty trying to pickup my wife.

And I don’t think he knows how to use a phone. Same guy that had to drive him around, also had to answer and dial the phone for him, I swear. But the stupidest thing he did was to up and leave. He standing right there, looking at shrimp boiling, the oysters being shucked, the Tur-duckling and the pork shoulder were in the oven and the chicks are on the front porch and the guys gets in his car, the one he can’t even drive, and has himself driven away.

Now that wasn’t real smart.